


A Welcome Break

by ainoimsed



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 18:44:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1398520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ainoimsed/pseuds/ainoimsed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ezio walks into the bathhouse, fully expecting it to be empty. Everything was just right, save for the fact that his mind had forgotten to account for one person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Welcome Break

Ezio walks into the bathhouse, fully expecting it to be empty. No one was out of place in the rest of the den—Adalet was sitting at the desk, behind her maps. Fahri was smoking his hookah. Ihsan and Ilhan were sharpening their blades in the armory, Sevil was sorting through books, Ozlem was cataloging their tools, and Murat was restocking their explosive supplies. Everything was just right, save for the fact that his mind had forgotten to account for one person.

The hisses and gasps coming from the far side of the bathhouse nearly startle him into drawing his blade. “Yusuf,” he says in surprise, as his eyes fall to the younger man, sitting in a tub of hot water.

Yusuf snaps his head to look at Ezio and smiles his normal charming smile, not at all shy over the fact that he is stripped and in the tub. “Ah, Ezio! Come for a bath, have you?”

“I have,” Ezio says as he nods, and begins to shed his armor. 

Yusuf turns back to washing himself, and Ezio catches sight of a new, red gash on the right side of his ribs. Every time the water sloshes up just enough to graze the wound, Yusuf grits his teeth.

“Yusuf,” Ezio says again, concern knitting his brows together. “If you fail to wash that wound, it will not end up well.”

“I’ve washed it,” Yusuf pouts, and stretches up to look at it. “It’s been washed.”

“But have you washed it correctly?” Ezio scolds him, and continues to undress. Once his top half is bare, he steps toward the tub. “You are going to get an infection.”

Yusuf scoffs at this, and wrinkles his nose up. “I am perfectly capable of staving off infection, thank you. I have done it plenty of times.”

“Then what is this?” Ezio reaches down, tracing the jagged line of a scar across Yusuf’s back. “Had you kept it clean, it would not have healed into so harsh a mark.”

Yusuf bristles at the contact. “It is fine. That one healed long ago. I was young.”

“You are still young,”Ezio presses, though playfully. “And it would seem as though you need a lesson in the cleaning and dressing of a wound.”

“I need nothing of the sort,” Yusuf retorts resentfully, but before he can fight further, Ezio is behind him. He kneels and dips his hands into the water at Yusuf’s sides, takes the cloth draped over his knee, and gets it wet.

“This will not be pleasant,” Ezio speaks softly, his face close enough to Yusuf that the warmth of his breath fans over the skin of his upper back. “But it is necessary.”

Yusuf nods, still pouting at having lost. He winces at the contact of the cloth and Ezio relents momentarily, before beginning the painful process of cleaning the dried blood and dirt from it. He lays his free hand on Yusuf’s left side, as if to steady him.

Once the process is finished Yusuf lets out a breath, and grits out a smirk. “That was... Less than comfortable.”

“I gave you plenty of warning,” Ezio teases in response, and lays the cloth over the rim of the tub. He leans over to snatch up a new one from a small cabinet nearby, and wets it in Yusuf’s water. “But it is clean. That’s what matters.”

By this point, Yusuf is red in the face. “You could have just told me what I needed to do. You didn’t have to do it for me.”

Ezio chuckles—a quiet, musing sort of sound—and nods. “Oh, but I did. You would not have done it nearly as well.” He lifts his hand and touches the wet cloth to Yusuf’s forehead.

Yusuf stops moving altogether, and presses his lips into a thin line. “What are you up to, mentor?”

Ezio raises an eyebrow, and replies as if it is the simplest thing in the world. “I’m washing you.” He drags the cloth back and over the top of Yusuf’s head to wet his hair.  
“Well, yes, I’ve understood that part,” Yusuf says, frowning as the water drips down his cheeks. “But, as far as I can tell, I am perfectly capable of doing that on my own.”

“Consider this a break,” Ezio says, voice satiny to the ear; an old habit from his days of promiscuity. He removes the cloth from Yusuf’s head and instead places it on his neck, using gentle strokes to wipe him clean of dirt and sweat.

“A break from what?” Yusuf inquires, craning his neck to give Ezio more space to work with.

“Whatever you need a break from,” Ezio replies, and dips the cloth once more. He draws it up and over Yusuf’s head again, getting his head sufficiently wet, and then sets it aside in favor of his hands. He runs his fingers through the length of Yusuf’s hair, letting his fingertips graze his scalp. Yusuf sighs and leans his head back in an effort to get a bit more pressure out of those fingers, and Ezio obliges him. He scratches gently, slowly, and Yusuf unwinds.

Ezio moves his hands down to the back of Yusuf’s neck and uses his thumbs to knead the muscles there. They are tense, and the sudden pressure upon them makes Yusuf gasp. He relaxes almost immediately, and Ezio rubs the stiffness from his neck with ease. After several minutes Yusuf begins to writhe, starts to arch his back—and Ezio pulls his hands away.

Yusuf jerks to sit up faster than his body can seem to process, and nearly goes sliding in the tub of water. His face is warm and red, and his eyes are wide when he shoots a look up to his mentor.

Ezio smirks, and heads over to his own tub. “You are perfectly capable of finishing the rest, no?”

**Author's Note:**

> Nishta made me do it. No regrets.


End file.
